If you ever miss your childhood days, running around with friends in the summer and hanging out by the beach, When life gives your mangos is the book for that mood! A fast paced Middle Grade novel about friendship, through our protagonist Clara, author Kereen Getten weaves a beautiful story about friendship, families and small closely-knit villages. Take a look at the synopsis below and then read on for my thoughts.
Twelve-year-old Clara lives on an island that visitors call exotic. But there’s nothing exotic about it to Clara. She loves eating ripe mangos off the ground, running outside in the rain with her Papa during rainy season, and going to her secret hideout with Gaynah–even though lately she’s not acting like a best friend.
The only thing out of the ordinary for Clara is that something happened to her memory that made her forget everything that happened last summer after a hurricane hit. Sometimes things come back to her in drips like a tap that hasn’t been turned off properly. Other times her Mama fills in the blanks…only she knows those aren’t her memories and it is hard feeling like she is not like everybody else.
But this summer is going to be different for Clara. Everyone is buzzing with excitement over a new girl in the village who is not like other visitors. She is about to make big waves on the island–and give Clara a summer she won’t forget.
Content Notes: Depiction of death, dealing with loss of a closed one, accidents in water bodies, destruction due to storms.
Thoughts on When Life Gives You Mangos
This book was recommended to me by Tina. I loved the village that this book was set in. The summer depicted in the story felt exactly like summers back home for me, even without the beach. Though When life gives you mangos focuses on Clara, a twelve year old, we learn a lot about a number of characters. Clara used to love the water and one of the mysteries in this book is what happened last summer that water causes her an immense fear reaction. I want to highlight two main themes that spoke to me throughout this book.
On Friendships
Clara used to be best friends with Gaynah but something has gone wrong. It seems like Gaynah is spreading rumors and sharing secrets about Clara and Clara can’t seem to figure out what has gone wrong. It’s summer though and it helps that Clara can make friends with the new girl in town – Rudy. Rudy is a loving adventurous character and she always brought a smile to my face with her imagination. Having lived in the USA, she is outspoken and not afraid to go up to adults and talk to them. Through Rudy, we learn more about Clara herself – she likes adventures but she doesn’t like to get into trouble.
This book does such an amazing job of showing how friendships start and evolve. Sometimes it is hard to remember where we went wrong and our paths diverged. This is what happened with Clara and Gaynah. This is such a closely knit community though so they have to resolve the problem eventually. I loved Rudy and Clara’s friendship since that spoke to what it is like to meet someone new and the strength that comes from always having them in your corner.
On Community and Memory
Clara lives in the small village of Sycamore. It is a small community and everyone knows everyone. Interwoven with Clara’s personal struggles is the story of Clara’s paternal uncle. He is shunned by the villagers and he too shuns them. As the book progresses, I learned about the history between her Uncle and the Pastor in the community. This also spoke to the childish grudges that people continue to hold as adults – trauma that they have not yet processed and instead lash out on others to feel better.
As kids it can be hard to truly fathom what happened. The feelings of loneliness and being left out can stick with us a long time but eventually, we have to take the step to resolve them.
I find Middle Grade books quite thoughtful and When life gives your mangos did not disappoint! It was a quick read with a lovely community of characters and it brought back many memories. Read this book to reminisce a bit about someone you used to call a friend and the shenanigans you used to do.
** When Life Gives Your Mangos is now available in stores. Be sure to check your local library and support them. That’s where I got my copy! **
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Thanks for reading! 🙂 For other Middle Grade books, check out the Book Review Index.
Cover image: Photo on Pixabay
This was a delightful review, it felt really articulate and I loved how you mentioned all of the themes and topics that make up this book. It’s on my TBR but after reading your review I never knew that it was this profound. Great post!
I am so glad to hear that – Middle Grade books I find are more profound than we give them credit for! I hope you enjoy the book. Do let me know when you publish the review – I would love to read your thoughts on this one too! 🙂
Agreed! I’ll let you know when I publish it of course! Always looking to discuss books with anyone 😊